The Chairman of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) Jarosław Kaczyński has announced that Poland will raise the issue of war reparations in international forums. “Germany must pay us the reparations. We will run a campaign to make the world aware of what happened in Poland during the war”, he said. He stipulated that the process of seeking reparations would be protracted.

On Saturday in Nowy Targ, the Chairman of the Law and Justice party spoke about the issue of war reparations from Germany, which his party is demanding to be paid. “It is high time when it is necessary to put the cards on the table. And this was done the day before yesterday. On 1 September, at the Warsaw castle, we made it clear: we will demand reparations to which we are entitled”, he said.

Chairman Kaczyński assessed that the expected amount of 6.2 trillion PLN in compensation is the most modest calculation that can be made.

“One could make a much, much more far-reaching calculation, even many times larger. But we have limited ourselves to this. And this is the issue we will put forward,” he said.

The Chairman of the Law and Justice party also pointed out that Germany had paid one billion dollars in compensation to Namibia for the events of the early 20th century. He stressed that in the United States, Indian tribes are paid for events from 200 or even more than 200 years ago, while Germany paid reparations to 70 countries, even Italy, which after all was their ally until 1943.

“We received nothing. And that is why, as a country, as a serious state, we must finally stop treating ourselves as being inferior. Because this is something that sticks in the minds of many Poles.  We do not have an inferiority complex. We have no reason to have an inferiority complex”, stressed the Law and Justice’s Chairman.

At the same time, Jarosław Kaczyński stipulated that the process of demanding compensation would take a long time. “This is not an action for a year, let alone a month. This is an action for years”, he assessed.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński